IELTS
Writing Task 1 has very common vocabulary, and it can all be learned. After
finishing the first paragraph of the Writing Task, it is now the time to start
working on you second and third paragraph. These paragraph is very detailed,
comprising of information which covers the general trend (the most striking
part of the data) such as the highest number, the lowest percentage, the steady
increase, the dramatic decline, et cetera. It also contains comparison, like
when you compare the upward trend of teenagers who start smoking before the age
of 17 to the number of teenagers who are actively involved in some outdoor and
physical activities. Although there are many things that we need to explain in
paragraph two and three, I’ll try to break it down to make it easily
understood.
Let’s start with the opening of your paragraph
two and three. Here are some of the most common opening in the second and the
third paragraph
- As presented in the graph
- It can be clearly observed that...
- The diagram reveals that...
- It is important to notice that..
- As can be seen in the...
- It is interesting to note that...
- According to the...
- It can be seen that…
- As shown in the illustration...
- It is quite apparent that
- Now, turning to the details....
- It is apparently seen that...
- The data clearly shows that...
- It is worth noticing that...
- The data suggest that...
- It is obvious that…
- As the diagrams suggest...
- It is clear that
- It could be noticed that...
- Going back to the detail (paragraph three)
Paraphrasing for the word increase and decrease
Trend
of the data
|
Write
it as a Verb
|
Write
it as a Noun
|
Increase
|
Rise/
raise/ uplift / increase/ go up /climb/ move upward/ rocket / upsurge / soar/
jump/ leap/
|
A
rise/ a raise/ an upward trend/ a growth/ an increase
|
Decrease
|
decline/
reduce/ go down/ fall/ dip/ decrease/ plunge/ plummet/ drop/ collapse/
deteriorate/ slum/
|
a
decline/ a reduction/ a fall/ a downfall/ a decrease/ a downward
trends/ a drop/ a collapse/
|
Steady
|
unchanged/
level off/ plateau/ remain constant/ remain steady/ remain static/ remain the
same/ remain stable/ remain unchanged/ indicates a consistency
|
a
plateau / a steadiness/ a static/ a stability/ a consistency
|
Gradual
increase
|
-
|
a
ceiling trend/ an upward tendency/ an upward trend
|
Gradual
decrease
|
-
|
a
downward trend/ a downward tendency/ a descending trend
|
Tips
- Don’t use the same word over
and over again nor similar sentence structure. Writing –for most part, is
a matter of creativity. If you already use the word ‘increase’ as a Verb,
change it into a Noun the next time you use the word. A complete
illustration of the use of Verb and Noun can be seen in the table above.
- Maximize the function of
Adjective clause and the reduced version in the form of gerund and past
participle. Take a look at an example below:
There
is an upward trend of the number of train user in metropolitan cities like
Jakarta, and it is dominated by commuters from nearby cities.
- There are two Noun(s) that can be paraphrased here. You
can change the word ‘user’ by using the very general Noun ‘people’ and
additional information in form of Adjective clause ‘who use train’
- You can also change the word
‘commuter’ with the exact same method. Replace the word ‘commuters’ with
the word ‘passengers’ and add a reduced Adjective clause in form of gerund
so that it becomes ‘passenger commuting from nearby cities’
After changing those two
words, the sentence will eventually look like this:
There
is an upward trend of the number of people who use train in metropolitan cities
like Jakarta, and it is dominated by passenger commuting from nearby cities.
- Use various sentence structure
This can be done by many
ways, like changing active voice into passive (and vice versa), or changing the
Subject ‘there’ with another subject (see example below).
There
is an upward trend of the number of train user in metropolitan cities like
Jakarta, and it is dominated by commuters from nearby cities.
This sentence has the
word ‘there’ as a Subject, but it is still possible to re-arrange the sentence
so that it becomes like this:
The
number of train users in metropolitan cities like Jakarta indicates an upward
trend and is now dominated by commuters from nearby cities
Or like this
The
number of people using trains in metropolitan cities like Jakarta indicates an
upward trend and is now dominated by passengers commuting from nearby cities
"This simple
method of re-placing and re-arranging words and sentences can boost your
Lexical resource score in IELTS, and it is indeed worth trying"
- Use the word accurately
Sometimes it becomes a
little bit confusing to decide the choice of word that we use in Writing Task
1. The word ‘increase’ and ‘improve’ are two examples of Verbs that cannot be
used interchangeably. While the word ‘increase’ is more likely to be used when
explaining numerical data, the word ‘improve’ is usually used to explain data
which is a-way-more-qualitative in nature. Take a look at examples below:
The number of families
owning more than one car steadily increases, and now there around 68% families
in big cities which own more than two private vehicle – you see that the word
‘increase’ in this example refers to ‘the number’ and ‘68%’.
Compare it to an example
below:
There is a significant
improvement in terms of standard of life in some developing countries – you see
that the word ‘improvement’ (or improve, if it is written in Verb form) refers
to ‘standard of life’ in which the betterment is not explained in figure, yet
explained as a more qualitative categories like high standard or low standard.
Adverb and Adjective for
the word increase and decrease
When talking about
increase and decrease, it’s not just about increase and decrease. Increase and
decrease can be of different level (slight, moderate, or drastic), and this is
explained by using Adjective and Adverb. You probably have known that the function
of Adjective is to give additional information for Noun while the function of
Adverb is (mainly) to give additional information for Verb. We explain increase
and decrease in both Verb and Noun form, but their combination with Adjective
and Adverb is not interchangeable. Noun cannot be combined with Adverb just the
same way Verb cannot be combined with Adjective. For more explanation about the
possible combination of certain words in English, click here
Here are some of the
Adverb and Adjective that are commonly used in IELTS Writing Task 1
Change
|
Use the Adverb
|
Use the Adjective
|
Rapid change
|
Dramatically
Rapidly
Sharply
Quickly
Swiftly
Significantly
Considerably
Substantially
Noticeably
Enormously
|
Dramatic
Rapid
Sharp
Quick
Swift
Significant
Considerable
Substantial
Noticeable
Enormous
|
Moderate change
|
Moderately
Gradually
Progressively
Sequentially
|
Moderate
Gradual
Progressive
Sequential
|
Steady change
|
Steadily
|
Steady
|
Little or no change
|
Slightly
Slowly
Mildly
Marginally
|
Slight
Slow
Mild
Marginal
|
There are also several Verbs representing rapid change of the data, such as:
Rapid Change
|
Wave
|
Wave(s)
|
Fluctuate
|
Fluctuation
|
|
Oscillate
|
Oscillation
|
|
Palpitate
|
Palpitation
|
|
Undergo/experience/witness ups and
downs
|
Ups and downs
|
Tips
- Do not include all explanations
given in the data. The purpose of presenting a data in form of visual
graph or diagrams is so that we can draw a pattern, find out the most
significant trends, and compare/contrast the findings.
- Other than explaining increase
and decrease, you also use a lot of numbers (or percentages) in the second
and the third paragraph. Please remember that number should not be written
in exactly similar style. You have to paraphrase them, and these are some
of the most common ways
Using number and percentage
15%
growth
Reduced
by 12%
Drop
by 1,2 millions
|
Using Fractions
5%
= A tiny fraction.
23% = Almost a quarter. 25% =A quarter. 27% = Roughly one quarter. 29% = Nearly one-third, nearly a third.
30%
= A third
49% = Around a half, just under a half.
50% = A half.
51% = Just over a half.
74% = Almost three quarters.
78%
= More than three-quarter.
|
Using Proportion
2%
= A very small proportion.
4% = An insignificant proportion. 16% = A small portion. 70% = A large proportion. 74% = A significant majority, A significant proportion.
92%
= A very large proportion.
|
In some cases, we also need to use approximation
About
Just
about
Around
Just
around
Nearly
Approximately
A
little less than.
Just below
Roughly
Almost
A
little more than
More
or less
Just
over
Just
under
|
Tips
- IELTS Writing Task 1 is better
written in three to four paragraphs. If you write more than four
paragraph, there is a possibility that you will digress, become too
specific, or run out of time
- Do not put all your ideas in
one paragraph. A writing that consists of only paragraph cannot be
categorized as a writing, it is a paragraph.
- Conclusion part is optional and
should be used only as a mitigation step. If you already write at least
150 words, you may want to skip conclusion and focus your time and energy on IELTS Writing Task 2
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